'Teacher Prep' Charter School Seen as a First

Future teachers living in the Phoenix area are invited to begin
their training as early as age 14 at a new charter high school designed
to grow educators for the region's classrooms.

Slated to open next fall, the Teacher Prep Charter High School is
believed to be the first charter school in the nation to focus on
grooming students for teaching careers. It plans to provide students
with introductory classes in pedagogy and various field experiences in
education, in addition to the rest of the high school curriculum, said
Corina Gardea, the president of Phoenix College, one of two community
colleges in Phoenix partnering to develop the program.

"We keep hearing about the great need for teachers not only in
Maricopa County, but nationwide," Ms. Gardea said. "We know the
shortage is only going to become greater as scores of teachers begin to
retire ... so we created a high school that will target young
people."

Experts agree the school could move to the forefront of such
programs nationally.

Grow-your-own-teacher programs aimed at high school students and at
adults interested in changing careers are gaining popularity as
administrators aim to stretch their recruitment dollars, said Barnett
Berry, the director of policy and state partnerships for the National
Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a privately organized
panel made up of educators, public officials, business leaders, and
others. Such initiatives are a good bet because they yield teachers who
want to work in the communities in which they are trained, he said.

"It makes a lot of sense," Mr. Berry said, "especially in urban and
rural communities that generally have a difficult time attracting folks
from the outside."

Administrators at Phoenix College and its partner, South Mountain
Community College, hope to serve 80 students in the new school
annually, Ms. Gardea said. The school will seek students from
throughout Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix.

Although the curriculum has yet to be worked out, students will have
an opportunity to earn dual high school and college credit. Their work
will be ungraded, though their performance will be assessed before they
are promoted.

Housed by Colleges

The school's organizers intend to hire high school teachers who have
worked as teacher-educators and anticipate that college faculty members
will offer guest lectures, Ms. Gardea said.

The goal is to usher students on to higher education, where they
will earn degrees in education before returning, the organizers hope,
to teach in one of the more than 30 school districts in and around
Phoenix, she said. The school will be housed in a building now used by
a consortium of community colleges and managed by Phoenix College.

The program will be useful because it will likely yield minority
teachers, who are in especially high demand, said Penny Kotterman, the
president of the Arizona Education Association. Most administrators are
currently able to fill vacancies, yet the teacher workforce lacks
diversity, a particular problem when schools serve mostly Hispanic
students, as is the case in the Phoenix area, she said.

But not everyone is sure the concept of a high school dedicated
solely to prospective teachers will fly.

"I think it is fantastic; I hope it can work," said Susan Katzman,
the director for career and technical education in the St. Louis school
system, which runs a program for such students within a traditional
high school. "But it is not always easy to convince young people this
is a profession they should pursue."

Students often worry they won't make enough money as teachers, or
say they don't want to spend four years in college to earn the degree
necessary for employment, she said. Enrollment in the St. Louis program
is low enough, Ms. Katzman said, that administrators are considering
expanding the scope to include child-care workers.

But such initiatives can have—and have had—a positive
impact on the teacher pipeline, said Janice Poda, the senior director
of the division of teacher quality in South Carolina.

Her state began offering high school students education courses in
1985 and, to date, 45 percent of the 30,000 participants, known as
"teacher cadets," are now teaching. About 32 percent of those educators
are members of minority groups.

"Just yesterday, I spoke with all the district teachers of the year
... and out of 65 or 70 people, eight were teacher cadets," Ms. Poda
said. "One was a finalist for national teacher of the year."

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